Does anyone have or know the location of a good bird's-eye pic of a U-boat deck? I am currently cruising www.uboat.net but have found nothing yet.

I have a graphics business and work with vector files quite a bit. I want to cut my graphic film to use in place of photo resist and etch a deck for my Robbe U-47. There's always the long way around, and I know the people who are selling brass decks probably don't want to share a file that took hours to create (don't blame them) but if anyone can provide me a good quality bird's-eye photo of a handsome deck, I would be forever in their debt. It could be from a model or an actual sub, just a template over which I would build a vector file.

BTW if someone is reading this who does have the file, I would be willing to make you copious vinyl masks in exchange for your file. These may or may not suit your purposes given the physical limitations of my plotter (Gerber Odyssey XP), but would be easier than working with photo-resist, from what I've read of that process.

Okay if any of you Robbe builders are interested, I almost have the file done. When it is I will post it for you in a couple different formats so you can try your hand at etching. (itching to etch?) I tried to follow the Amati deck as best I could make things out. I also used the bird's eye drawings from one of those lovely German sites. What I have not done yet is put all the little details on the forward and rear parts, which in the drawing below are just approximate sizes. Those will be set up correctly very soon.

Well......this has already been done and is available as a finished product as of about six months ago.

I drew the Type VIIC deck in AutoCAD (originally for the DK Models 1/48th scale Type VIIC kit) and modified it to fit the robbe kit. The drawing is based on actual U-boat plans and lots of photos. It's not a rough approximation like the robbe-supplied deck. Negatives were made from the CAD drawing so that etched brass or stainless steel decks can be made.

Through an arrangement with Al Matava, Ships n' Things is the distributor for these decks.

I am certain your deck is superior to what I have done, since I looked at one drawing, four pictures and had it done in an hour. My problem is the spousal budget chairperson (my wife) has begun to filibuster my submarine funding, so I will have to do it myself. Plus I couldn't find pics of the deck on the Ships-n-Things website and I wondered what it looked like.

What do you think of my idea about using cut vinyl panels in place of the photoresist? Have you ever heard of that? It would be a cake walk compared to the whole screen printing dope style setup.

Oh yeah, that comment about "had it done in an hour" was not really correct. It was more like 3hrs by the time I made the "real" drawing fit onto Robbe's hull opening. Robbe's conning tower was also slightly forward of the drawing I found and I made a lot of other "artistic license" compromises. It's definitely NOT a deck for the discriminating modeler.